


First Impressions

by colourfulangel



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Justice League - All Media Types, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: BREAKING NEWS: World's best heros are humiliated by said fourth grader, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Dick Grayson is Robin, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, More on the story this evening, Parent Bruce Wayne, Young Dick Grayson, local speedster decimated by a fourth grader, more news at 11
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-19
Updated: 2019-11-21
Packaged: 2021-02-12 22:57:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21484234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/colourfulangel/pseuds/colourfulangel
Summary: When Robin finally gets Batman to take him along to the watchtower, a meeting gets a little off-track as some members of the league try to recover from the shock of finding out the caped crusader's partner was not only real, but a young child.Luckily, Robin is not a kid one can easily brush off.Now continued!
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne
Comments: 40
Kudos: 496





	1. Chapter 1

Bruce got up from his chair in front of the batcomputer, swiveling it neatly back around in place and straightening his cape. The dark knight took long strides across the stone floor and stopped not far from the cave’s zeta tube.

A moment’s silence past and he let out a breath. “Robin, come down here.”  
  


A brightly coloured flash quickly dropped from among the stalactites above, and with a light thud, his protégé landed squarely on his shoulders. A lesser man may have flinched at having a child dropped on them from almost 15 meters above, but he was Batman. He’d been through fear gas. Death traps. A year of having an acrobatic child treat him as a jungle gym.

Said acrobatic child leaned over Batman’s head to meet his eyes, showing a bright smile. “how’d you know I was up there, Bruce?”

The bat couldn’t help slightly smile at his ward. “I didn’t hear you using the gymnastics set, and you’ve been asking to use the zeta tube for days.” He grunted. “Not bad on hiding, though.”

The little bird’s face lit up at the praise. “dy’a think I would’ve gotten the drop on Penguin?”  
  


“Maybe, chum.” He chuckled.

Robin slid back out of Batman’s view, sitting behind his head and lightly swinging his legs. He hummed a bit but quickly grew impatient as the dark knight did not move. A huff sounded and Batman felt two arms cross and rest on his cowl.

“So, uh Bruce… Can I go with you to the league this time?”

Stark white lenses narrowed. Robin had been his partner for a long time, but with Gotham’s “no-metas” policy, The colourful child was but a rumour to his fellow heroes, and he wasn’t sure if it was the right time to introduce the league to his ninja-child (frankly, he would be quite wary of it if he wasn’t the guardian of said child, and knew his capabilities). Yet sooner or later they would find out. Maybe it was best on his terms…

Two arms wrapped loosely around his neck and a tiny head nestled between the bat’s ears.

“**_Pleeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaasse?_**”

Bruce suppressed a sigh as he felt dick’s jaw slightly dig at his skull. He didn’t have to use his detective skills to tell a begging grin was on his little bird’s face. He didn’t even have to look under the mask, let alone at his face, to know he was using his puppy dog eyes. “Very subtle, Robin.” He grumbled.

Experience told him he would eventually cave to the boy’s pleas; the shadow of justice didn’t cave under _anything_ else. He continued to stand, to test how long he could last before giving in, _not_ to hear Robin continue to talk. Will strengthening only. Yep.

Robin slumped and pouted. “C’mon, Bruce! You said I could visit your friends soon if I was good!” His face scrunched. “…I’ve been good right?”

“…yes Robin. I suppose that’s true.” He walked back up to the tube and typed in the code for the watchtower. “You can come. I expect you to be on your best behaviour, or I won’t take you again. And while we’re there, _only_ address me as Batman.”

The little bird straightened up and bounced a bit energetically! “Yes sir, Br- Batman!” He giggled as the dark knight stepped into the tube with him, and they were soon gone in a flash of brilliant light.

Diana tapped her fingernails against the cold, glossy meeting room table. She and most of the other members had come a few minutes early, as Batman would always show up right on the dot and scorn anyone who came in later (usually Barry). But today, it seemed Batman was the one running late today. True, only by two or three minutes, but for one as disciplined as him, it was concerning. She glanced at the Rubik’s cube John had summoned from his ring and was thoughtfully staring at. She was about to snap at him _(it’s ALL GREEN how do you SOLVE IT) _when the door slid open and John’s concentration broke.

“Sorry I’m late.” Batman glowered, striding over with his usual dark aura shrouding him like a storm. “Busy.”

But the other leaguers only gaped at his direction, slack jawed and soundless. His eyes scanned the room from behind his cowl. He almost began to speak before being interrupted.

“H-hold on there Batman.” Superman swallowed and shakily raised a finger to point just above the caped crusader. “Not to stall the meeting or uh, _alarm_ you, but… you seem to have a child on your back.”

Robin, still sitting on the shoulders of his adopted father, grinned again and waved at speeds that impressed Barry. “Hi Superman!” he cheered. He looked around to see the other heroes, still silent, and individually gave each of them a frantic wave and enthusiastic greeting.

Once the little acrobat had finished his routine, Batman held his fist to his mouth and cleared his throat. “This is Robin.”

A tense second passed.

“You mean Robin isn’t a rumour?!” Flash blurted out, and emphatically threw his arms out. “There’s really a brightly coloured crime-fighting child in freakin’ _Gotham_?!”

Batman didn’t respond.

Martian manhunter finally broke his first words. “Batman, I must admit… Bringing a child into the crime fighting business seems… unsafe.”

Before even Flash could react and catch him, a yellow and red blur launched itself from atop his perch and flipped onto the middle of the table. “Unsafe for criminals!” He cawed proudly. Seeing him unharmed, Flash took his prepared foot off the table and sat back down but kept his eyes glued on the kid.

John’s eyes flitted between the daredevil child and his shadowy caretaker. “Uh, Bats.” He whisper-spoke. “Is he supposed to do flips?”

“Robin is a professional.” He answered bluntly and crossed his arms. The ten-year-old vigilante beamed at the praise, skipping back across the table wedge himself in Batman’s lap. Batman acted completely unperturbed, to everyone’s shock. “So, let’s begin the meeting.”

“Er, yadda yadda, Captain Colderang or something. Whatever.” The speedster zipped up with his hands on the table. “Who cares, we gotta talk about the kid crusader here.” He embellished with a point.

He glanced at Robin from under his cowl. The child was still beaming, no doubt trying to contain his excitement from meeting real superheroes (he hoped he’s been just as excited when the boy first discovered his hero identity…) and Robin was a performer. Unlike the shadow cloaked lone wolf, Robin loved to be in the spotlight.

He relaxed his muscles, which robin recognized as bat-speak for granting the request. Dick eagerly leaned into the table and stretched his arms across it. The eager lad stood out in stark contrast to his mentor, who seemed somewhere between annoyed and tired. Maybe. His face looked like that a lot.

The league blinked and realized they were expected to speak to a child now, not display their qualms to Batman.

“So, uh, Robin?” Diana broke the ice.

“That’s me, Wonder Woman!”

“Right.” She awkwardly tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear. “so, uh… you work with Batman?”

He clapped his palms against the table. “Uh huh! B takes me out on patrol every other day, and on weekend nights I get to stay up later than all the other kids! We zip around the city like we’re flying and Sometimes we have dessert on the rooftops and I’m getting **really** good at helping out, we already took out Manbat this week and guess what! I caught him in a bola! B said I did really good.” He crowed and puffed up with pride.

“You… fight supervillains?” The Martian questioned

“And swing from rooftops?” added the other worried alien.

“How late are we talking, kiddo?” John’s brow raised.

“Dessert?”

Everyone’s gaze swiveled to the speedster.

“What, I’m hungry!” He defended.

An eerie cackle drew their attention away from him, as it echoed and bounced around the room. After a few questioning glances, they turned back to the head of the table, and discovered it emanated from non other than the little black-haired bird. He then cut his own laugh off, folded his arms, and smirked devilishly at them. “You know I’m perfectly capable of holding my own against B here, right? I’m probably overqualified for your home bases.”

He eyes the heroes, seeing the gears turn in their heads to process what he just said. Before any objections could be raised, his smirk intensified into a predatory smile. “Anyone of you want to test me on that?” he looked back up and re-donned his childlike smile. “If I’m allowed to, B.”

Batman didn’t take his eyes off the ceiling, as if it would collapse if he didn’t. He grunted, and barely seemed to acknowledge what his ward had claimed.

_“Overqualified? He’s a little kid!”_ went through many minds at the table.

Flash stood up, wove his fingers together and stretched his arms and back with a crack. “Y’know what kid, you’ve got spunk. Think you can you live up to your words?” He grinned. “I’ll go easy on ya, so no worries.”

The lenses of robin’s domino mask narrowed, and he cartwheeled from bat to table, table to floor. “Whatever you tell yourself, Flashy.”

Barry shone a good-natured smirk and readied his stance.

“Wait.” Robin said, “We should head to the sparring room.”

“Nah, I don’t think we’ll cause much damage.”  
  


“You are paying for any damages to this room.” Batman spoke impassively, eyes still on the apparently interesting ceiling.

“Yeah yeah, no worries, Bats.” He shrugged and dropped into a runner’s start position. “Ready, kid?

Robin’s face cleared and he nodded.

_“Ok, just gonna restrain the kid. Keep ‘im safe”_ Flash’s mind raced (which was, frankly, quite normal), _“Just gonna show him this crime fightin’ business is no cakewalk”_

He dashed forward in a streak of red, aiming just slightly left so he could grab the kid’s arm and pin him, ending the spar. But as he dashed closer, he noticed the kid almost… vanished? As his brain reeled, two small heels struck the soft of the back of his head, pushing him down and causing his face to collide with the floor. The blow may not have severely hurt him, but the speed he had built up plus the meeting of the tile was a blow to his handsome face (and ego).

He spun around to see Robin holding an object in much the same way Batman would before readying a precise batarang, so he expected the throw and swiftly jumped over the pointy red object (**_why has Batman given this kid weapons Jesus Christ_**) but in the midst of his leap, another arm shot out from behind his cape, and Flash could instantly feel his momentum halt and he dropped to the floor, tangled up in another stupid bat-gadget.

Robin skipped over to him, looking a tad disappointed. “C’mon, I told you I had bolas. Weren’t you listening?” He quipped before stepping over the groaning speedster and wiggling his birdarang out of the wall. He then took a quick look at a clock mounted on the wall before his mask-whites went wide. “Holy bananas, Batman! It’s almost suppertime and Al’s making goulash tonight!” He dashed over to tug at the bulletproof black cape. “C’mon! We gotta go!”

Like a dead man brought back, Bruce groaned as he got to his feet and made a noise the others didn’t recognise… A chuckle? Maybe, but from the shadowy, stone faced enforcer of justice? Not plausible, surely.

Robin continued to tug until they both exited the room, and then popped his head back in with a cheerful smile. “Thanks for playing with me, uncle Barry!” His cackle sounded and soon the dynamic duo had vacated the space station.

No one was sure how to respond, or even how to feel after their first encounter with the bat’s little bird. Superman could only manage a thousand-yard stare, while J’onn was deep in thought. Diana and John looked confused

“So uh, let’s worry about ninja-killer-kid tomorrow, can anyone untie me? That dent in the wall from his doohickey isn’t going to plaster itself.”

Bruce and Dick were back in the cave, putting their utility belts away for the next day. “So can I go again, Bruce?” Dick beamed up hopefully.

“Well, you completely distracted the meeting, talked the whole time, and humiliated Barry.” He fiddled with the lock and turned a steely gaze back to Dick, who was squirming under gruff comment. He wanted to slink away into the shadows like Bruce did, but he then felt a reassuring hand ruffle his raven hair. “Best time I’ve had up in that tin can. You have to come with me again next time.”


	2. Green Lans-turn

Robin skipped along the sterile halls of the watchtower. Batman was currently working at monitor duty for most of the morning, and It was about time for the little bird to get lunch. Bruce decided not to give him directions, wanting him to practice his detective skills and familiarize himself with the league’s headquarters.

Currently he was looking out one of the big windows down at earth, trying to pick out where on the continent his home of Gotham was. He hummed and shifted his weight, then noticed a shadow on the floor at just the edge of his vision.

He turned, looked up at its caster and flashed a happy grin. “Hi Uncle Barry!”

Barry coughed. “H-hi, hi.” He took a breath and leaned on the wall, trying to act cool. “Sup.”

He lightheartedly cackled at Barry’s awkwardness. “So, what did you want to ask me?”

“Hey now,” Flash stiffened and pointed a finger gun down at the kid. “Maybe I just wanted to say hello, huh? How did you know I had a question specifically for you?”

“You just said so”

Robin’s smug aura mocked him.

The speedster let out a sign and smothered his hand to his face. “Okay, okay, you got me. Fine.” He crouched down to be more eye-level with the boy wonder and made his face more serious. “It’s about yesterday, when you were talking about what you do in Gotham, with the Batman…”

The tower was quiet. Too quiet. Despite the satellite not having a terribly large population, usually _something_ would happen, anything, from J’onn’s newest question about an earthen tradition or a distress call for him to check on, as per Green Lantern duties. Yet today felt as dead as the open void of space outside, and GL slumped a touch. He decided to go to the kitchen, as it was the lunch hour and it would at least give him something to do. Sure, the power of the ring meant he didn’t _need_ to eat (or breathe, or uh… never mind) but he still enjoyed a good meal.

As he turned the corner, he stopped mid-step at the sound of laughter and chaos. Giggles and a mildly upsetting cackle sounded, along with frantic footsteps. An egg was thrown out of the kitchen entrance and he saw it splatter on the hallway wall. Frowning at the mess and powering up his ring to deal with whatever _made_ that mess, he crept over to the doorway and steeled his will.

John peeked into the kitchen, and his neon green eyes went wide at the state of it. Eggs cracked on the walls and tables, bits of flour, sugar, and milk made a microbiome on the counter, and two wide-eyed supposed perpetrators in the eye of the storm, each with an egg in hand. Flash had some egg on his cheek and was wearing an apron and chef’s hat which almost seemed to deflate as he realized he was caught in the act. Robin seemed to have somehow avoided the Eggpocalypse, but his hair was covered in flour, the powder white starkly contrasting his night black locks.

“Heeeeeey, GL…” The taller troublemaker gulped. “What’s crackin’?”

John suppressed the urge to scream, settling instead on a lung-emptying sign. He kept crossed his arms and hovered himself up a bit. “I’m going to ignore that comment for now.” he frowned. “Care to explain yourselves?”

The speedster and the acrobat exchanged worried glances.

“Well, uh, you see, G,” Barry put the egg he was holding back in the carton, “Me and the kid were just doing some baking, you know, fun activity, whisks and whatnot…”

John’s eye twitched. “Must be a pretty unorthodox recipe if it includes trashing the entire kitchen.”

Flash sputtered a bit of nonsense as he tried to think of a good way to present this to the space cop.

The little acrobat wringed his gloved hands. “Sorry Mr. John, we were just playing around and got carried away.” Robin peeped. “Barry ruffled some flour in my hair, and I tried to get him back, but he was pretty quick and uh…” He looked to the tile and scratched the back of his neck. “I think I knocked over an egg. I thought I’d be in trouble but he, he wasn’t mad! He knocked one over too.” He cracked a sheepish smile. “It kinda escalated, and we ended up throwing them around, we were just playing but we got carried away. Sorry.”

Green eyes flickered over the kid. He was fully prepared to let whoever did this beware his power, but there was no way in hell he could possibly be expected to lecture the sorry little bird. He took a breath and floated down, kneeling before Robin and placing what he hoped was a reassuring hand on the shoulder.

“Kid, It’s okay. We all make mistakes sometimes, but it’s fine as long as you know what you did was wrong. Let’s clean this mistake, alright?”

A beaming little smile slowly grew on Dick’s face, as his posture grew more confident. “Yes sir!” He laughed and bounced away to get the paper towels from the cupboard. GL’s heart rose a bit at the display, like when he got to hold a puppy or kitten. Why was the big bad bat training such a little ball of sunshine?

Flash coughed to get his attention and leaned down smugly, extending a hand to help pull the lantern up. John glared back, albeit far more passively than before.

“If you were any other member, I’d say I expected better.”

“Aw, GL, you wound me.” Barry leaned back and faked some hurt. He wouldn’t get any awards with acting like that, though.

John chuckled, any anger he felt having left him fully. “So why were you baking, anyways?”

The speedster’s expression intensified, and he leaned forwards very close, his big chef’s hat falling onto John’s forehead. “So, you remember at the last meeting, where Robin was describing what he did with Batman?”

“The part where he engages in combat with dangerous adults?” He quietly responded, eyebrow quirking up.

“No, the other thing.”

  
“Swinging around from high-up buildings?”

“The _other_ other thing.”

John stared ahead silently.

“Ugh!” Groaned Flash. “The part where he has dessert! With Batman!” He waved his arms frantically as if it was the most important news in the world.

“…What.” The green light source deadpanned.

Somehow, the red clad man’s posture got even more overblown. “Desserts with Bats, GL! What kind of desserts would Batman eat! I gotta find out!” He crouched back down, masked eyes narrowing. “I would’ve thought the man was allergic to the joy of cotton candy and ice cream, seeing as he hates everything fun. This is a mystery we’re solving, here. A real case.”

John struggled not to roll his eyes at the stupidity, but there was a point: he just couldn’t see the dark knight enjoying a slice of cake, or candy, or… enjoying anything, really. He had more in common with the stone gargoyles of Gotham than regular people. Picturing Batman’s leering form though, John suppressed a shudder and made a mop construct out of his ring to assist the child and childish man. Even though the man wouldn’t be mad at John for this, an upset bat in general was something no one wanted to deal with.

“There we go!” Barry cheered as he wiped up the last bits of egg. “Ready to get back to work, Robin?”

“Yeah!” Robin flipped onto the counter and continued mixing some dough in a bowl while humming a cheery little tune.

John, with Barry’s comments still swimming in his mind, finally let his curiosity get the best of him. “What are you guys making, anyways?”

The little bird kept working but swiveled his head to talk meet his face. “Batcookies. Al lent me the recipe.”

A red blur zoomed over to place some parchment paper on a baking tray. “Yeah! You wanna help us out, G?”

Normally the lantern would have continued questioning, asking why there was a recipe for batcookies, what was in them, if everything related to the caped crusader had the prefix of bat… but frankly, he was a bit in shock. He just walked over to help them out.

“Good job!” the 10-year-old clapped, and John’s green rolling pin vanished. “Now we can use these cookie-cutters to cut out the shapes.” And the kid crusader pulled some little steel shapes that looked like his mentor’s logo out of his utility belt. “I only brought two, I didn’t think you’d be helping out, Mr. John.” An embarrassed robin red flush dusted his face.

He smiled at the still cute as a kitten kid and summoned his own batman cookie cutter. “No problem, I can use my own.”

Caped shoulders eased and a relieved grin spread on the bird’s face, and the three of them began to work.

“You know, Robin,” John coughed, “You’re pretty good at baking”

“Thanks!” He puffed up at the praise. “Al taught me, since B isn’t very good at it.”

“Have you ever considered taking up baking instead of crime fighting?” He inquired.

A pout instantly shadowed his face. “No. I love helping out people how I can, and it’s pretty fun. Besides, who else would help Batman?”

Lime eyes filled with concern. “I’m sure he can continue to manage on his own. We just don’t want you to get hurt.” He sighed.

“Pfft. At least I could only get hurt by reasonable things. Aren’t you one of the guys who can’t stand the colour yellow?” He smirked and leaned up.

“Woah woah hold on.” Flash interrupted, frantically waving his hands. “GL, are you seriously weak to the colour yellow? Like, banana yellow?”

“What, no!” He snapped, and then let his gaze drift as he brought a knuckle to his lips. “Well, I don’t think so. Um…” He tried to remember when he was last attacked by something canary coloured.

“I’m pretty sure you are.” Robin piped up, donning a mischievous smile. He spread his cape out with his arms, showing off the bright yellow inside, like a cobra’s hood. Slowly staking towards him, his grin grew wider and he bared his teeth.

“H-hold up there, kiddo” GL held his arms up defensively and took a few steps back. “Let’s calm down a bit now…”

Sure, the little bat prodigy was almost half his size, but in true bat fashion, he radiated danger and fearlessness. If he looked like a puppy earlier, now John could only see the look of a coyote stalking a hen. And this hen _really_ did not want to be caught.

Robin crouched and took an extraordinary leap at him, which John dodged by half an inch. The crazy kid somersaulted upon landing and turned back around, ready to continue the hunt. John feared being caught by the Batman’s ninja child and flew up, bolting out the door. His pursuer followed, an eerie cackle now echoing down the halls.

“Ha ha ha! I’m gonna get you, Uncle John!”

“Ah, kids.” Barry said wistfully as he put a timer on the oven.

“So uh, Bats, Is GL seriously allergic to yellow?” The curious speedster asked the dark knight, who kept his gaze fixed firmly on the monitor screen. “Cause like, that seeeeeeems like a big weakness, like if we encountered a villain who based his shtick on a New York taxi cab, it’d sorta be a-“

“He’s not.” Batman cut him off. “The yellow impurity in the central battery on Oa was removed a while back. Green Lanterns are no longer vulnerable to it, in any capacity.” He took a sip of his pitch-black coffee, not taking his concentration away from the screen.

Flash suppressed a giggle. “So, should we go tell GL that?”

“…Not now.” The dark figure’s fingers tapped the keyboard, bringing up the security feeds of the watchtower, some of which showed the guardian of the galaxy running in juvenile fear from a laughing fourth grader, energetically flapping his cape like a pair of wings. “Robin did his homework. Green Lantern did not. We can inform him tomorrow.”

Watching his little boy running around in glee, Bruce couldn’t help but let a smile briefly ghost his face as he leaned back into the chair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so amazed at the positive response I've gotten!! I love writing Dick interacting with the other heroes, so I'm now continuing this one for a bit. How'd you guys like it? Which JL member would you like Robin to embarrass next? Leave all your comments below! <3
> 
> I'm planning on doing about 5 chapters for now, but I might expand on that later. I'm just wondering how to bring in Aquaman and Hawkgirl, if you'd like to see them :^)

**Author's Note:**

> Really hoped you all liked it!! Please leave comments and kudos, they mean the world. I'd like to do other Dick Grayson-Robin stories, so let me know if you would like to see another one-shot or have this one continued. We all know Robin can and will fight the whole league.


End file.
